In 36 years, Michael will be 4 times as old as he is right now. How old is he right now?
Answer: We can use the given information to write down an equation about Michael's age. Let Michael's age be $m$ In 36 years, he will be $m + 36$ years old. At that time, he will also be $4 m$ years old. Writing this information as an equation, we get: $m + 36 = 4 m$ Solving for $m$ , we get: $3 m = 36$ $m = 12$.